Under the Umbrella
by donjeffreykrouskop
Summary: As she wages her ongoing war to take down Umbrella, Alice pauses to reflect on her recruitment into the corporation's security corps.


Alice stood in the Berlin skyscraper's spacious lobby, amidst the bodies of the men she'd just killed, and stared up at the Umbrella Corporation logo on the opposite wall. She remembered the first time she saw it.

She was 16 then, her father just diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer after years of working in the Raccoon City Nuclear Power Station. With her mother long gone and dad too weak to work, it seemed as though they'd be unable to pay for any sort of treatment.

Then the men from Umbrella came and offered them hope, in the form of free treatment for her father in the corporation's state-of-the-art research facility, with the newest and most effective medicines available, in exchange for Alice's transfer from Raccoon City High into Umbrella Security's Officer Training Program.

It seemed odd at the time that they'd be willing to offer so much just for her. She was intelligent and athletic, pretty enough to be popular with many of the boys her age and successful enough on the gym floor and the track to earn the favor of most of her classmates. But she'd never even considered the possibility of becoming a cop or a soldier, so she couldn't fathom then why they considered her such an attractive candidate.

Then again, at the time she'd had no idea that Umbrella actually owned the nuclear power plant, or that it kept such close tabs on the family members of all its employees. Or that its Research Department had such keen interest in the individual medical records and histories of those family members.

At the time of the offer, all Alice had cared about was her father's rapidly faltering health. So she agreed, entering the OTP and excelling in both her education and her training. By the time she was 19, she had graduated and been promoted to a post training other recruits. At 22, she was reassigned to a Hive security post just outside the city. The undercover assignment even came with fringe benefits – a beautiful mansion to live in, and a handsome partner posing as her husband.

The Umbrella doctors were able to keep her father alive a full three years longer than his oncologist initially predicted. They were three pretty good years, too, with he and Alice spending Saturday and Sunday afternoons playing chess and nitpicking the inconsistencies in action movies she downloaded from her employer's private digital library. His cancer finally spread too far for even the Umbrella doctors to treat, and he died peacefully in his home of 32 years, twelve days after her graduation from OTP.

The undercover assignment was initially easy and fulfilling, the mansion so remote and secure that she and her live-in partner had had plenty of time to enjoy all the benefits of married life with none of the emotional commitment. Then came the day when she learned of what was really going on down in the Hive, and she realized someone had to put a stop to it. If only she'd acted sooner, before the morning she awoke to find Spence gone, leaving behind a note which read, "Today is the day all your dreams come true!" If only she'd gotten out of there right then and there, instead of opting to take a quick shower…

She glared up at the logo. It was a little different now than when she was 16. The colors were a little brighter, the outer edges of each wedge-shaped segment a bit more concave. But it was still the same red and white, octagonal symbol it had always been, an avatar that was supposed to represent safety and progress but signified only horror and death. And here she was, all these years later, still very much under its evil influence.

The sight of it stoked her rage. She reloaded her machine pistols, turning away from her memories and toward the elevator which would carry her to the top floor of the building and more bloodshed. She had to do this. No one else could. But the thought gave her no comfort, because it was followed immediately by another.

"Dad wouldn't have wanted this..."


End file.
